A day at the pool

Day 12  Thursday, January 31, 2019   At Sea

I took zero pictures during our final three days at sea. This photo is taken from one of our first few days.

This day was different for us because we don't typically just lie at the pool for more than a few hours at a time. But today, we were out there either alone or together from 7:15 am to 4:30 pm. We knew it would be our last day of really warm weather, so we wanted to find a place by the pool ahead of the other 1000s who would be thinking the same thing.

I awoke at about 6:50 am, and instead of going straight to the fitness room, I donned my swim trunks, our two coffee mugs, my book, and headed for the pool to grab us some prime chairs. I left Janet a note to just come find me by the pool when she awoke, and I'd have her coffee waiting for her. I was guessing I might be out there alone for about an hour before she would join me. Ha!

After getting the two mugs of coffee, I did find two chairs by the pool in a good location (which would be shady until the afternoon). Interestingly, despite the prohibition on reserving chairs, every single chair out in the sun was reserved with zero people at them. I observed the people gradually arriving over the next few hours to take their reserved chairs. I did reserve the chair next to me for Janet, but I remained in my chair the entire time, unlike the completely empty chairs that were reserved in the sunniest areas.

I read my book, and read my book, and read my book, always expecting Janet to appear. Well, finally at 9:15 she arrived! She had slept much longer than we thought, but she was sure feeling great. Ready for a tough day at the pool!

Once she arrived, I could finally go get my breakfast at the nearby buffet. When I was back, Janet could go get her breakfast. We always wanted to have one of us at our chairs, because of the no-reservation rule. Of course, we later would visit the hot tub together and leave our chairs, but that was okay.

This was the first day when the buffet had the napkins and silverware, and the salt/pepper/condiment trays, out on the tables. Another sign that things were returning to normal for the norovirus scare. 

We just relaxed all day, reading our books. We took turns on getting our lunches, and in those cases we brought back our plates to eat on our pool chairs. After lunch at some point, I went to the fitness room for my cycling. On returning, we went into the pool and hot tub. Other than that, it was reading and relaxing.

We learned that the temp in Monroe had dropped to -31° windchill, and that school was indeed cancelled again. Wow, did we feel lucky to be where we were!

By 4:30 pm, the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped to where it was no longer so pleasant, so we went "home" to shower up and go to dinner. We returned to the buffet for dinner, and had prime rib again. With all the poolside drinking all day, we were done with booze. We had coffee, and headed off to our room so very early. No shows, no nothing. We read and watched MSNBC. We were definitely intrigued by the stories about the Polar Vortex that was hitting the Midwest, including Monroe. Chicago had a wind chill of -50°.